"Elizabeth Rosenberg, who served as a senior Treasury adviser working on sanctions issues during the Obama administration and who now studies sanctions policy at the Center for a New American Security, said Mr. Trump’s interventions were unusual and disruptive. “'This is not the norm in Washington,' she said. 'He is making up sanctions policy on his own, and influencing the course of policy in a way that undermines United States priorities and has shocked United States allies...'" Read the full article [...]

"The EU’s decision would be important particularly amid diverging policies between Europe and the U.S., said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The U.S. and EU previously coordinated sanctions lists and worked together to reach the 2015 nuclear deal. However, their sanctions strategies are no longer in alignment since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear pact in 2018. “'It’s different this time,' said Ms. Rosenberg, who previously advised on Iran sanctions [...]

"For now, the Islamic Republic may be able to contain the unrest. 'The violence is not necessarily a precursor to more massive political violence in Iran; nor is it the desperate and bloody response of a regime verging on collapse,' Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former treasury specialist now at the Center for a New American Security, told me. Despite Iran’s struggles under powerful sanctions, 'it would be folly to underestimate the staying power of Iran’s regime élites who are experts at repressive [...]

"What has driven this surge in sanctions? According to Marshall Billingslea, an assistant secretary in the Treasury department, the growth reflects Donald Trump’s innovative 'financial statecraft.' Certainly, they seem an ideal tool for Mr Trump, who wants to put foreigners under lots of pressure but is reluctant to send troops or bombers to do the job. 'Sanctions are perceived to be an option for when words aren't good enough but war is too much,' says Elizabeth Rosenberg, of the Centre for [...]

“‘In financial services, people are very accustomed to these sanctions,’ Ms. Rosenberg said. ‘There’s a lot of existing knowledge about what it means to have sovereign debt restrictions, correspondent banking restrictions.’ “‘But when there are new measures that go at nonfinancials—which is an expressed goal of this administration, for example, in the shipping industry, other manufacturing areas—that is a new compliance challenge for many industries, who haven’t seen this kind of measure being handed out before, and who may not have, [...]

"If U.S. sanctions turn out to be mostly symbolic, 'that would be a relatively minor economic or diplomatic cost worth bearing for Turkey to advance its military objectives in the region,' Elizabeth Rosenberg, who worked on sanctions policy in the Obama administration and is now at the Center for a New American Security..." Read the full article here: Full Article